A productive four months for our Head of Professional Development, Jo Shirley

A productive four months for our Head of Professional Development, Jo Shirley

Four months in, and I am feeling very at home here at emfec. I am very much enjoying working with the team at the Skills and Education Group and am taking advantage at every opportunity to enhance my knowledge of the sector further.

With professional collaboration being key, I am busy planning Spring Networks and new Professional Development events. I want to ensure that our Networks focus on relevant and up to date themes and provide opportunity for you to hear from reliable and creditable sector speakers. January kicked off 2018 with positive numbers attending the LGBT+, EDI and Quality Networks, all coming together from a wider geographical reach at Robins Wood House in Nottingham. In future, we will be promoting each individual Network alongside planned content and speaker details via a blog through our website News page for you to view.

I am also having productive and effective involvement in a number of Education & Training Foundation projects:

I am heavily involved in the delivery of an ETF Professional Exchange project which currently has 45 members who have held two very successful and productive meetings. I have also recently attended project review meetings at the ETF in London. This provided opportunity for me to meet and collaborate with key figures at the ETF, in addition to learning further about other successful Professional Exchange Projects throughout the country. There is still time to get involved to collaborate, acquire and share knowledge on current TLA themes, just email Jo Shirley.

The ETF Early Years Professional Exchange is a project, which through collaboration identifies high priority areas for professional development and leads to a programme of CPD to support staff working in the Early Years sector. We currently have 30 teaching practitioners / assessors / support staff / middle managers engaged in project. The next meeting is on 1 Feb at Walsall College where their outstanding Early Years practice will be showcased – book now. Future diary dates for the third round of meetings are 27 Feb or 7 March. Email me direct if you are interested to join.

The ETFSET for Teaching Project involves me providing mentoring to “new to teaching practitioners” who are studying for PGCE/ Diploma in Education & Training. I was tasked with leading on the agenda and invited to attend and facilitate sessions at the Set for Teaching Residential held at the STEM Centre, University of York in December, which was part of the project designed to encourage trainees to further collaborate and learn. If you are interested in the next phase of this project, please register your interest with Jonathan Poxon.

If I can help you to customise specific Professional Development, please get in touch. I am available to work with you to develop and tailor effective development to meet your organisational needs and this can be delivered at your premises at times to suit you.

Finally, I was incredibly privileged to be invited to attend my first Parliamentary Reception at the House of Lords to hear from Robert Halfon (MP), Baroness Burt of Solihull and David Hughes from AoC, and to celebrate the great work of the colleges across the Midlands.

To ensure you keep up to date with what’s going on and what’s coming up, follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.